Chinese scientists and engineers vowed to keep contributing and making innovative breakthroughs during their interviews before the start of the second plenary meeting of the first session of 14th National People's Congress (NPC) on Tuesday. 

China made its presence on the moon and Mars with its probes launched in the past several years. The success was largely attributed to the "technology and talent that Beijing has," said NPC deputy Sun Zezhou from the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation who lead the design of the Chang'e-1, -3 and -4 lunar probes as well as the Tianwen-1 Mars probe.

Sun said that he would contribute more to the development of scientific and technological self-reliance and the construction of a strong nation in the aerospace industry.

China's world record-setting deep-sea drilling rig was also one of the "zero-to-one" technological achievements.

The drilling rig Hainiu-2 set a world record of drilling to a depth of 231 meters on a seabed – more than 2,000 meters beneath the sea level – in April 2021. It was developed by a team led by NPC deputy Wan Buyan from Hunan University of Science and Technology, who also spoke at the "Deputies' Corridor" Tuesday afternoon.

"We put in effort where we lag behind," Wan said.

According to Wan, his team owns more than 150 national patents and 16 international invention patents, and their drilling rigs have been applied in the Pacific Ocean and other oceans, in the South China Sea, East China Sea and other waters for a number of international submarine mine census and exploration.

Meanwhile, deputy Xue Qikun from the Southern University of Science and Technology believed that a strong economic support from the country is the key to science research and technological development.

Xue said that many of the government policies emphasizing education, technological innovation, talent recruitment and incentives for enterprises' participation in innovation have provided educators with better opportunities.